Participating in the Faith-Based and Health Care Community Reception held at Heartlove Place last week are; from L to R are Pastor Richard Rogers, a heart donor recipient in 2011, Jay Campbell vice president of Organ and Tissue Donation with the Blood Center of Wisconsin and Ray Harmon, a 2007 heart donor recipient and newly announced aldermanic candidate. (Photo by Robert Bell)
BloodCenter of Wisconsin hosted its Faith-Based and Health Care Community Reception on Thursday, October 27, 2011, at HeartLove Place. The Community Celebration honored African American donorship, which allows an individual to give the highly personal and unique gifts of blood, marrow, organs and tissue.
As part of the event, Blood- Center of Wisconsin’s 2011 Faith-Based Community Challenge award winners were announced.
Twenty-three churches were recognized and honored for participating in the Community Challenge. The Challenge created a friendly competition amongst Milwaukee’s African American churches to recruit the most members for blood and marrow registry, and online registration for organ and tissue donation.
The three winning churches identified a student from their membership to receive a $1,000 scholarship which will be awarded to an accredited institution of higher learning. The winners were:
- Ephesians Missionary Baptist Church, Pastor Joe Todd. The scholarship recipient is Shalay Madison, who attends Wisconsin Lutheran College.
- St. Matthew CME Church, Pastor Richard Shaw. The scholarship recipient is Nature Horton, who attends Cardinal Stritch College.
- Christian Faith Fellowship Church, Pastors Bishop Darryl and Pamela Hines. Their scholarship recipient is Lauren Harris, who attends UW Madison.
“When African American’s Donate, African American’s Live” was this year’s event theme. Milwaukee Health Commissioner Bevan Baker offered a dynamic presentation about the health care gaps and disparities in our community and how Donorship-( donating blood, marrow, organ & tissue) can help to close these gaps. Assistant Pastor Andrew Hopgood of New Testament Church was the keynote speaker.
Other speakers included Thelma Sias, We Energies Vice President Local Affairs; Dana World-Patterson of World Outreach & Bible Training Center, Ray Harmon, a heart recipient and donor family member who shared his personal story of donation and Jay Campbell, Vice President, BloodCenter of Wisconsin/ Wisconsin Donor Network/ Wisconsin Tissue Bank.
In addition, supporters in the faith-based & healthcare community were provided tools they need to share the message about the importance of donorship to congregations and health care organizations for National Donor Sabbath weekend and beyond. National Donor Sabbath will be observed November 12 and 13, 2011. Members of faith communities focus on the life-affirming gifts of hope passed to others through donorship. Many faith leaders will participate in services and programs to educate their congregations about donation and transplants as well as the critical need for donors. Attendees were provided the opportunity to sign up for BloodCenter’s upcoming community event, the 3rd Annual “Gift of Life Donorship Drive” to be held on Saturday November 19, 2011, from 9:00a. m.-2:00p.m. at Northcott Neighborhood House, 2460 N. 6th St.
For more information please call 1-877-BE-A-HERO (1-877- 232-4376).